Section III: Toward "Personal" Computing Flashcards
What was the most prominent example of an early interactive computer?
Project Whirlwind
Who was put in charge of Project Whirlwind?
Jay Forrester
The U.S. Air Force contracted which university to work on a flight sim?
MIT, the Servomechanisms Laboratory
What did Forrester do to make the computer for Project Whirlwind faster?
he made it electronic
The U.S. Air Force was going to cut funding for Project Whirlwind, but what saved them?
the Cold War
When did Project Whirlwind become operational?
1951
How was the Project Whirlwind computer different from most computers at that time?
it was faster, used a CRT and a printer, and was able to display simple graphics
After developing Project Whirlwind, MIT transferred the technology to which computer company?
IBM
What did IBM market the Whirlwind computer as?
AN/FSQ-7
Many AN/FSQ-7 computers will built, forming which air defense system?
SAGE
Which decade was the SAGE system decommissioned?
the 1980s
IBM used its experience with the SAGE system to create which other system?
SABRE
SABRE was made for which airline?
American Airlines
Which year was SABRE fully operational?
1964
What was SABRE?
an interactive flight reservation system
By which decade were all major airlines using interactive flight reservation systems?
the 1970s
Who made timesharing?
John McCarthy
Who lead CTSS?
Fernando Corbato
When was CTSS made?
1963
At its peak, how many simultaneous users could CTSS support?
30
What did CTSS use to input things into the computer?
typing on teletypes
Teletypes pioneered the use of which 2 keyboard keys?
Escape and Control keys
When was CTSS able to support electronic mail?
1965
When was CTSS decommissioned?
1973
Where was BASIC invented?
Dartmouth
What was BASIC?
a beginner’s programming language designed to help students learn how to code
What did Dartmouth’s BASIC timesharing system use for input?
teletypes
What computer was the BASIC timesharing system built around?
a General Electric 235 computers
What was the successor of CTSS?
Multics
Who made the second system effect?
Fred Brooks
What is the second system effect?
the idea that most people tend to over-design the second system
How many total users could Multics support?
25
When did Bell Labs leave the Multics project?
1969
In 1970, General Electric sold its computer division to which other computer company?
Honeywell
When was Multics decommissioned?
2000
Who founded DEC?
Kenneth Olsen
When did Olsen found DEC?
1957
What was DEC’s first computer?
the PDP-1
How much did the PDP-1 cost?
125k
What did the PDP-1 use for memory?
transistors and core memory
How was DEC able to offer the PDP-1 for so cheap?
they used the spartan business model
What was the spartan business model?
where you don’t spend extra money on unnecessary things to cut down on costs
How much money did a PDP-8 cost?
18k
When was the PDP-8 created?
1965
What was the size of the PDP-8?
the size of a fridge
What were the PDP series known as?
minicomputers
How many total PDP-8 models were sold?
30,000
When was the PDP-11 made?
1970
The PDP-11 was the “___________” minicomputer?
quintessential
How many PDP-11s were sold?
170,000
What was the PDP-11’s operating system?
RSTS-11
RSTS-11 included a modified version of which programming language?
BASIC
Which programming language was made on a PDP-11?
the C programming language
When was the C programming language created?
1972
Who made the UNIX operating system?
2 people
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie
What computer did Thompson and Ritchie use to get the UNIX started?
a PDP-7
Dennis and Ritchie convinced management to get them which computer to continue the UNIX on?
a PDP-11
What language was UNIX initially written in?
assembly language
The Unix was rewritten but this time it used which programming language?
C programming language
Who invented the C programming language?
Ritchie
Why did AT&T have trouble selling the Unix?
because it was a government-regulated monopoly and couldn’t sell items not related to telephony
How did AT&T sell Unix?
they sold copies of Unix to universities for a low cost
Who did networking begin with?
J. C. R. Licklider
What were the nodes for ARPANET called?
interface message processors, or IMPs
What was the solution for trying to connect nodes across large distances?
store and forward packet switching
Store and forward packet switching takes ideas from what?
old telegraph networks
What were the 4 initial universities to have ARPANET?
UCLA, UCSB, Stanford, and University of Utah
What is a protocol?
an agreement on how something should be formatted, encoded, and transmitted
What fueled the growth of the ARPANET?
electronic mail
What other computer network already had electronic mail?
CTSS
Why was electronic mail on CTSS limited?
because it could only be used to communicate with colleagues from the same organization
In 1975, what was the largest source of traffic for ARPANET?
What drove the creation of many other computer networks?
The computers linked by Usenet were mainly running which operating system?
Unix
Usenet pioneered which other electronic service?
newsgroups
What are newsgroups?
an online service that allows people to post messages sorted by topic
Newsgroups can be compared to which modern internet service?
social media
Which organization started BITNET?
the City University of New York
When did BITNET merge with CS Net?
1989
BITNET and CS Net were eventually absorbed by which other network?
NSFNET
Which organization created NSFNET?
the National Science Foundation
When was ARPANET decommissioned?
1990
Which country used the Minitel Network?
France
What percent of French households had a telephone in 1970?
8%
What percent of French households had a telephone in 1989?
95%
When was the Minitel network shut down?
2012
Where was the first wireless computer network based?
Hawaii
Why was it difficult to build a traditional computer network for Hawaii?
because the state is very mountainous and is separated by thousands of miles of water
What was the first wireless network?
ALOHAnet
Who made ALOHAnet?
Norm Abramson
How did ALOHAnet transfer information?
through radio signals using a packet-switching method
What happened when 2 computers sent data at the same time using ALOHAnet?
they would collide and transmission would pause for a few milliseconds and then retransmit
ALOHAnet inspired which other invention?
Ethernet
In the mid-20th century, Xerox was the leader of which industry?
the copy machine industry
Which decade did Xerox’s patents for copy machines expire?
the 1970s
Which year was the PARC center founded?
1970
Who was hired to manage the PARC labs?
Robert Taylor
What was the first computer Xerox made called?
the Alto
How was the Alto different from other computers on the market?
it displayed output on a screen, it had a keyboard and a mouse, and the screen was bitmapped
What does it mean when a screen is bitmapped?
it means it can display both text and images
Who invented the mouse?
Douglas Engelbart
Which demonstration was the mouse featured in?
the 1968 demonstration called “Mother of All Demos”
Before the laser printer, what were the 2 most common types of printers?
the daisy wheel printer and the dot matrix printer
What was a daisy wheel printer compared to?
a typewriter
How does the daisy wheel printer operate?
it strikes letters against a ribbon of ink and produces nice documents but can’t print images
How does a dot matrix printer operate?
it strikes tiny pins against an ink ribbon and can print text and images, but is clotty and pixelated
How does a laser printer operate?
it uses laser beams to control the ink and can print documents that have text and images with high precision
When was the Alto first finished?
1973
What was a deficiency in the one computer one-user model the Alto used?
it was difficult to share files with other users
Who invented the Ethernet?
Robert Metcalfe
How did Metcalfe connect the Alto machines together?
using the Ethernet
When was the Ethernet finished?
1974
When the Ethernet was finished being designed, it could support speeds up to __ _______ bits per second.
3 million
What does WYSIWYG stand for?
What You See Is What You Get
WYSIWYG is an acronym used for which concept?
the GUI word processor
What was the first GUI-based word processor called?
the Bravo
Which company made the Bravo?
Xerox, more specifically the PARC team
What was Gypsy?
an updated version of Bravo that was easier to use
When was Gypsy released?
1975
Who invented Smalltalk?
Alan Kay
What new approach did Smalltalk take?
object-oriented programming
In object-oriented programming, programmers first create what?
data structures, or classes
In object-oriented programming, programmers design what after creating the classes?
the procedures or methods
What does object-oriented programming do?
it helps with organization, which allows programmers to create larger more robust programs
Who invented CLU?
Barbara Liskov
Where was CLU invented?
MIT
What was the Star?
an “improved” version of the Alto
What slowed the adoption of the Star?
it was sluggish and very expensive
How much did the Star cost?
$16,000
What is an innovation that made small, cheap computers possible?
the microprocessor
Which 2 people founded Intel?
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore
A Japanese calculator manufacturer asked for custom chips from Intel to do what?
make more advanced calculators that could perform trigonometry and other advanced functions
When was the Intel 4004 microprocessor released?
1971
What was the improved version of the Intel 4004 called?
the Intel 8008
Who made the Altair 8800?
MITS
Where was MITS based?
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Where was the Altair 8800 announced?
the Jan. 1975 issue of Popular Electronics
What was the Altair 8800 advertised as?
a cheap minicomputer that cost only $400
Which chip did the Altair 8800 use?
the Intel 8080 chip
How did the Altair 8800 achieve its low cost?
through its use of off-the-shelf parts
The Altair 8800 was limited and was sold mainly as what?
a kit
How much memory did the Altair 8800 have?
256 bytes
What were expansion cards?
hardware that allowed computers to be given extra functionality, like more storage and the ability to connect to external devices
Who made a version of BASIC that was compatible with the Altair’s Intel 8080 processor?
Paul Allen and Bill Gates
When did Commodore, Apple, and Radio Shack release their first personal computers?
1977
What were the differences between Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack’s PC compared to other PCs?
they didn’t use Intel, they were sold as complete systems, the keyboard was necessary, they were meant to be used with display screens, and they came with BASIC pre-installed
Which company made the TRS-80?
Radio Shack
Which company made the Apple II?
Apple
Which company made the Commodore PET?
Commodore
How did the TRS-80 get its wide audience?
through Radio Shack’s large network of stores
Commodore was a producer of __________ before they made their first PC.
calculators
The Commodore PET was described as a what machine?
a monolithic machine
What may have limited the Commodore PET’s appeal?
its calculator style keyboard
Which Commodore computer holds the title of best-selling desktop?
the Commodore 64
Which 2 people designed the Apple II?
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
What made the Apple II ideal for gaming?
its ability to display color graphics
